Resources and Fisheries of the Gulf of Thailand

Abstract

The rapid expansion of trawl net fisheries in the Gulf of Thailand since the early 1960's and the later expansion of purse seine fisheries in the 1970's have brought the Gulf of Thailand into sharp focus as far as classical fishery problems, namely bio-logical over fishing and over capitalization, are concerned. Foreseeing these problems as early as 1962, the Department of Fisheries of Thailand has since undertaken research and investigations on the biology and bionomics of certain species of fish of commercial value. This study is prepared with the intention of summarizing the existing knowledge about the environment, the status of the fisheries, the state of the stocks of fish being exploited, and current resource and fishery management schemes for general readers as well as for the students of the resources and fisheries of the Gulf of Thailand.